DESCRIPTION

mkfifo() makes a FIFO special file with name pathname. mode specifies the FIFO's
permissions. It is modified by the process's umask in the usual way: the permissions of
the created file are (mode&~umask).
A FIFO special file is similar to a pipe, except that it is created in a different way.
Instead of being an anonymous communications channel, a FIFO special file is entered into
the filesystem by calling mkfifo().
Once you have created a FIFO special file in this way, any process can open it for reading
or writing, in the same way as an ordinary file. However, it has to be open at both ends
simultaneously before you can proceed to do any input or output operations on it. Opening
a FIFO for reading normally blocks until some other process opens the same FIFO for
writing, and vice versa. See fifo(7) for nonblocking handling of FIFO special files.
mkfifoat()
The mkfifoat() function operates in exactly the same way as mkfifo(), except for the
differences described here.
If the pathname given in pathname is relative, then it is interpreted relative to the
directory referred to by the file descriptor dirfd (rather than relative to the current
working directory of the calling process, as is done by mkfifo() for a relative pathname).
If pathname is relative and dirfd is the special value AT_FDCWD, then pathname is
interpreted relative to the current working directory of the calling process (like
mkfifo()).
If pathname is absolute, then dirfd is ignored.

RETURNVALUE

On success mkfifo() and mkfifoat() return 0. In the case of an error, -1 is returned (in
which case, errno is set appropriately).

ERRORS

EACCES One of the directories in pathname did not allow search (execute) permission.
EDQUOT The user's quota of disk blocks or inodes on the filesystem has been exhausted.
EEXISTpathname already exists. This includes the case where pathname is a symbolic link,
dangling or not.
ENAMETOOLONG
Either the total length of pathname is greater than PATH_MAX, or an individual
filename component has a length greater than NAME_MAX. In the GNU system, there is
no imposed limit on overall filename length, but some filesystems may place limits
on the length of a component.
ENOENT A directory component in pathname does not exist or is a dangling symbolic link.
ENOSPC The directory or filesystem has no room for the new file.
ENOTDIR
A component used as a directory in pathname is not, in fact, a directory.
EROFSpathname refers to a read-only filesystem.
The following additional errors can occur for mkfifoat():
EBADFdirfd is not a valid file descriptor.
ENOTDIRpathname is a relative path and dirfd is a file descriptor referring to a file
other than a directory.

VERSIONS

mkfifoat() was added to glibc in version 2.4. It is implemented using mknodat(2),
available on Linux since kernel 2.6.16.

CONFORMINGTO

SEEALSO

COLOPHON

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